It was Friday afternoon and I wanted to bake something. I try to make different things but it always ends up being brownies. This week, though I hadn’t got any chocolate in and there was no way I was going out to our local Co-op just for chocolate. Even though restrictions have been lifted, I am still really anxious when going out and only go out to shops if I have to. I looked in my baking cupboard and saw I had most of a tub of glace cherries and some ground almonds. Cherries and almonds together sounded perfect, just like Cherry Bakewells! So the idea for a Cherry and Almond Loaf cake came about.

CHERRY AND ALMOND LOAF

You need a 2lb loaf tin (greased and lined or you can use a ready made loaf tin liner available from all good cookware shops)

Serves 8-12 depending on how generous you are!

Ingredients:

175g soft margarine, such as Stork

175g caster sugar

200g self raising flour, sifted

50g ground almonds

3 medium free range eggs

1 tsp almond extract

150g glace cherries

1. Wash, rinse and thoroughly dry the cherries. Then cut them into halves. I like nice big chunks of cherries in my cakes. Rinse and dry them again as often you find syrup inside them as well! Toss the cherries into a tablespoonful of the self raising flour reserved for the rest of the cake. This should help to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the cake when cooked.
2. Put all the ingredients (except for the cherries) into a large mixing bowl and mix together until well combined.
3. Fold in the cherries.
4. Spoon the mixture into your prepared loaf tin.
5. Bake in the oven for 1- 1 1/4 hours at 180oC/ 160oC fan/ 350oF/ Gas 4. The cake is ready when a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

If you bake the recipe, do let me know if you like it. My daughter doesn’t like glace cherries but she thought that you could substitute chopped dried apricots instead. They would work well with ground almonds.

Happy Baking!

Love Sam xx